The NHS fog must now be lifted

IF I WERE TO criticise a much esteemed institution for appalling cruelty, I would assume that my fellow countrymen would support me once they knew what had been happening… if only to re-establish its former respect. But when it comes to the NHS, it seems that for those on the Left at least, this venerable institution holds the same romantic status as Keir Hardy's cap, the Toll Puddle Martyrs, and the suffragettes in Left-wing folk law. To such people Aneurin Bevan is comparable to Ghandi and, dare one say in theses perilous times, Mohammed?

           

             It is because the Left have expended so much of their socialist energy into the great NHS experiment, that it became their one last remaining example of the success of socialism. Proudly boasting it to be the greatest healthcare system in the world, they came to believe it and anyone who took a contrary or even are reformist position was shouted down as being a Right-wing privatiser.

            

             So silence remained the order of the day if you were a Tory. As with immigration, the NHS became a no go area for conservatism between 1997-2010. With the election of a minority Conservative government in 2010, who had been pressed by the British people into a coalition; Tory party criticism of the NHS has since been advanced by the scandals at Stafford and Morecombe, as well as Liverpool NHS Trusts, and, as we learn today, in 14 other NHS trusts.

            

            Today the NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh, releases his report. According to the Left's most vilified publication, the Daily Mail, '[Sir Bruce] will also reveal there may have been 13,000 needless deaths across these hospitals since 2005, proving that the appalling Stafford hospital scandal was not a one-off'.

THE NHS IS UNDER  assault, but for perfectly good and sound reasons; reasons which those who love the NHS should quietly reflect upon. There has been a culture of denial and burial of criticism; warnings have been issued to whistle-blowers among the staff. This culture of denial goes to the very top of the last Labour government. It rings true to me that it was in the 13 years of the last Labour government that such a culture of denial was seeded.

            

            The Labour Party's association with the NHS has been one of  an adoring mother toward a favoured child: and would countenance little if any censure or disapproval of their child. Indeed, if that child falls short of its parents expectations, they will still cling limpet like to their creation; as the Labour Party still does today, even after all of the scandal their past interferences have created.

            

            The NHS  has been kept alive by the suppression of whistleblowers by, in the first instance, managers, tutored to do so by Labour government ministers who were only interested in keeping the NHS dream alive. It may be difficult to prove but not hard to believe.

THOUSANDS HAVE DIED through deliberate neglect and cruelty, and they died during the very years when Labour poured billions into the NHS, a third of which went on staff pay, and in the case of nurses led to less responsibility. It was a period under New Labour when hospital managers proliferated and doctor's salaries reached six figures, and their hours decreased.

            

           The spin was meant to remind the public that the NHS is better served by those who created it, and certainly would not be so well provided for by the hated Tories. The people have always believed that, as it was Labour  who created this venerable institution, then it was only Labour that could be relied upon to support it - this, despite the fact that many of the NHS's voluntary workforce are retired Tories who also support the NHS; they also help by driving disabled people to hospital to keep their appointments. These 'territorial's' so to speak, are as part and parcel of the NHS culture as any other within the NHS army.

THERE HAS BEEN one good thing to come out of this cacophony of ill-treatment by NHS staff, and that is; first of all the whistle-blowers will, in the future, not be constrained by either threat or contract, from speaking out. Secondly, the Labour Party can longer silence the Tories (as they succeeded in doing on immigration),when it comes to the NHS.

            

            This scandal happened on Labour's watch; and the Stalinist methods used to silence those within the service (with Labour's support?) will no longer pertain…even if, God forbid, Ed Milliband wins in 2015.

            

            But Labour has not only sought to undermine the NHS's failings with their gagging orders; but they have also fatally wounded the NHS itself by another policy separate from covering up NHS scandals.

            

            'New' Labour under Tony Blair opened the floodgates to mass immigration - another scandal that should prove a warning to the British people, if they are misguided enough to vote Labour again.

            

             This influx has added even greater pressure to NHS provision, especially in times of so-called 'austerity'. The impact of immigration could prove to be the final nail in the provision of  socialised health care in this country, and if turns out to be the case, then it is a cruel irony indeed that the birthmother of the NHS, should turn out to have been its unwitting executor .